Artist Statement 

For our second sustained investigation, I decided to focus on Mother Nature grieving the degradation caused by climate change to demonstrate the harmful human impact on the environment. I aimed to emphasize this by portraying Mother Nature, who is vibrant and colorful, holding earth in her hands, which is gray and cracking, with a somber expression on her face. Her dress represents lava pouring out from the earth's core. 

For this project, we were allowed to use any materials of our choice. On watercolor paper, I used pencil to sketch my design. I then went in with different shades of yellows and oranges for the dress, greens for her hair, and gray and black for the earth. Finally, I went in with green, black, and orange colored pencil to add smaller details and shade. 

I began this project by sketching the face of Mother Nature, because I knew it would take me the longest. I tend to have a harder time drawing people and facial features, so I used pictures of my mother for reference. I then went in with layers of saturated gouache. My goal going into this project was to play around with brighter colors, and pushing my contrast, as I usually paint very light, with watered-down gouache or watercolor paints.